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borderroamerhttps://fisherbelfast.wordpress.comThe Northern Standard, Monaghan. Reporter.

THE FIGHTING IRISH

10/05/2013 by borderroamer

Myles Dungan

“The Fighting Irish” is the theme for a concert tonight featuring the music, songs and history of Irish wars and battles. The narrator is Myles Dungan, presenter of The History Show on RTÉ Radio 1. Music is by The Bonny Men and the venue at 8pm is the Pavilion Theatre at Dún Laoghaire. It’s part of the Festival of Flags and Emblems, Bratacha 2013. Bratacha is the Irish word for flags.

Tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon there will be a parade with bands featuring flags and emblems from different countries and groups at 3pm in Dún Laoghaire.

“NO IRISH NEED APPLY”

09/05/2013 by borderroamer

While finishing off my last post which featured London’s new buses, I tuned in to TG4 and watched a programme about the story of Irish emigrants in London. At one point I spotted the banner of the County Monaghan Association being carried at one of the Irish summer festivals. However the pictures did not last long enough for me to identify any of the people involved. My uncle the late Fr Reggie Smyth (St Patrick’s Kiltegan) was President of the Monaghan Association in London for many years and his friend the Bishop of Clogher Patrick Mulligan (succeeded by Bishop Joseph Duffy) used to travel over from Monaghan for their annual dinners.

Fr Reggie was based at Ilford and also at one stage in Slough. I was thinking about him earlier today when I was talking to a former colleague and neighbour, who mentioned that she had taken a relative for treatment recently to Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar. Fr Reggie died there in January 1991. Ordained in 1949, he served on the missions in Nigeria where he was education secretary in the Diocese of Calabar for many years, and later in Grenada. He had been chaplain at the Mother of the Church Convent in Newport, Co Mayo and also served at Cregg House in Sligo and the convent in Loughglynn, Co. Roscommon. But it was his work with the Irish community in England which I think gave him most satisfaction.

An tAthair Gearóid Ó Gríofa (TG4 picture)

In the TG4 programme “An Taithí i Sasana”, a Galway priest An tAthair Gearóid Ó Gríofa reflected on his work as an emigrant chaplain with particular responsibility for emigrants in London from Gaeltacht areas in the 1980’s. The documentary, one of four in a (repeated) series “Séiplinigh na nImirceach” produced by Esras Films examined how today’s chaplains in London are working with the elderly and often lonely Irish emigrants, the same generation which the original chaplains were sent to help 50 years ago. In his current role as PP in the suburbs of Galway An tAthair Ó Gríofa also commented on the challenges of multicultural Ireland with examples of cooperation with local NGOs and foreign chaplains.

Using archive footage of chaplains and emigration in the 1960’s and the 1980’s the series revisited an Irish experience of faith and of life away from home. A few of the emigrants interviewed recalled seeing the signs “No Irish Need Apply” when they were seeking accommodation in London in the 1950s and 60s. Black people received similar treatment. Although they worked in areas such as the construction industry for many years, many of the Irish emigrants of that generation remained single and never returned home. Now there are groups such as the Innisfree Housing Association providing accommodation for them in 500 properties throughout London. A similar group is Irish Centre Housing (ICH) which runs a number of schemes including Conway House in Kilburn, which I wrote about in February.

Conway House, Kilburn

As chaplains the priests sent from Ireland were there to provide pastoral care to the emigrants but more often found themselves much more deeply involved in the lives of the emigrants than they could possibly have imagined. For many emigrants the chaplain was seen as a first port of call, to sort accommodation, and employment and to deal with the difficulties many young Irish found themselves in in a strange land. In recent years, we have become very aware of our ‘Diaspora’ and their role in the development of today’s Ireland.

Just as historically we had a culture of emigration, today as a country we are learning to cope with immigration. People from other countries and cultures now emigrate to Ireland just as the Irish once emigrated across the world. Séiplinigh na nImirceach explores our national relationship with both sides of the migration experience. Examining the wealth of experience we have gained through Emigrant Chaplains, the series explored the contemporary parallels with the new immigrant communities in Ireland. One of the interviewees was Tríona Nic Giolla Choille, Director of the Galway Refugee Support Group. I studied German with her at UCD and her brother is the well-known broadcaster Cathal.

UNIONIST HISTORY & ROUTEMASTERS

08/05/2013 by borderroamer

Apprentice Boys of Derry Hall

A day for studying unionist and Protestant history. First, another trip by train to Derry/Londonderry, the UK City of Culture. I reported in March on the re-opening of the railway line from Coleraine. This morning the train from Belfast was quite full, many people taking advantage of their 60+ (like me) or 65+ free travel passes, including the group of six other retired people I travelled with. On arrival at the Waterside the free shuttle bus was soon full to capacity, so we ended up walking in the direction of the former Ebrington Barracks site and then onto the Peace Bridge, which some were seeing for the first time.

Apprentice Boys Banner

Stepping onto the City Walls at Magazine Gate beside the Guildhall, it was interesting to see that the iron fence security gates along this section had now been removed, a process that began a week ago. We walked as far as Society Street and our first stop was at the Apprentice Boys of Derry Hall, where we had arranged a tour of the premises. We were shown four short videos about the history of what was described as one of the largest historical and cultural groups in the UK and Ireland.

Four cannons found in basement of Apprentice Boys’ Hall

There are many artefacts inside the building. In the basement, during recent renovation work, four cannons were found concealed behind a wall. There is no date on them. Many items are directly related to the organisation, going back to the Siege of Derry in July 1689, when thirteen apprentice boys shut the gates of the city against the oncoming army of the Catholic King James II of England and Ireland. The History of the Siege of Londonderry 1689, written in 1951 by Cecil Milligan, lists the 13 as: Henry Campsie, William Crookshanks, Robert Sherrard, Daniel Sherrard, Alexander Irwin, James Steward, Roberet Morison, Alexander Cunningham, Samuel Hunt, James Spike, John Coningham, William Cairnes and Samuel Harvy, all of whom are remembered in various ways by the organisation.

Governor Lundy Effigy

It is hoped to open an extension to the museum within the next few weeks. It was interesting to see preparations already underway for making the huge effigy of Robert Lundy (Governor of Derry), regarded as a “traitor” for wishing to negotiate with King James during the Siege. The figure, stuffed with straw, will be set alight during the annual December celebrations marking the anniversary of the closing of the gates. In August 1969, the Apprentice Boys’ parade around the walls of Derry sparked off three days of intensive rioting in the city, known as the Battle of the Bogside. The disturbances are widely seen as the start of the troubles in the North. But there is little about this period in either the videos or the displays. Admission to the exhibition costs £3 and tours should be booked with the museum in advance.

Routemaster bus (RML2659) in (London)Derry

While walking through the centre of (London)Derry near the Diamond, the London link suddenly became very real when a familiar red Routemaster bus passed by on the tourist trail. The square windows in the middle of the upper and lower decks show that this was one of the elongated buses built by AEC at Park Royal, which could hold more passengers. They used the designation RML and based on the registration, the number for this bus (although it is no longer painted on the driver’s side) is 2659.

RML2659 at Golders Green: Photo ndl642m NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic Creative Commons Licence

A quick check using a web search revealed that RML2659 registration number SMK659F was brought into service by London Transport in September 1967 and had seats for 72 passengers compared to 64 in the standard design. A further search shows it running on the number 38 route from Victoria to Leyton Green and based at Leyton garage in 1987. In 1995 the bus was operated by Borehamwood Transport on the number 13 route to Golders Green Station from Aldwych.

A friend has just reminded me that the new version of the Routemaster, the so-called “Boris bus” because Boris Johnson began the commissioning process as Mayor of London, has started rolling off the production line at the Wrightbus factory in Ballymena, a town we passed on the rail journey to Derry. A few vehicles each week are being delivered to London. The County Antrim company won a contract worth £180m to supply 600 of the vehicles to Transport for London over the next three years, which works out at £300,000 per bus. If you are driving along the M2 motorway you might spot some of the distinctively coloured vehicles being driven from Ballymena towards Belfast for the ferry to Britain.

Route 24, which Metroline operates between Pimlico and Hampstead Heath, will become the first to operate exclusively with new bus for London vehicles starting on Saturday 22nd June. It runs 24 hours a day from Hampstead Heath to Pimlico, via Camden, Trafalgar Square, Parliament Square and Victoria. During peak hours, 27 of the new buses (and five spares)will be in passenger service to carry the 28,000 people who use the route daily. After route 24, another route will be converted in the autumn. In total around 90 new buses will be delivered to TfL in 2013.

New Routemasters leaving Wrightbus

The 600 buses represent a 200 per cent increase in the current hybrid bus fleet which is set to grow by a further 180 vehicles already on order and boosted by a commitment to deliver 600 conventional hybrids over the next three years. When the final batch of new bus for London vehicles is delivered in 2016 more than 1,600 hybrid buses (representing around 20 per cent of London’s 8,500 strong bus fleet) will be in service on the streets of London.

Many components of the new bus, including engines, chassis, superstructure and seats, are manufactured in the UK. The order of components from companies across the UK will also further stimulate the economy. The order represents the largest order of hybrid buses ever placed in Europe and will deliver significant environmental benefits, reducing CO₂ emissions in the capital by capital by almost 20,000 tonnes a year. Transport for London has confirmed that independent emission testing of a prototype vehicle has shown that this is the cleanest and greenest bus of its type anywhere in the world.

Boris Johnson on a new Routemaster bus (Photo: London.gov.uk)

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “I am delighted that our first gleaming new buses have driven off the production line, through the gates of Wrightbus and are now London-bound. These fabulous machines meld the very best in design, engineering and green engine technology. I believe they will be hugely popular with passengers and they will be joined by hundreds more of their brethren in the coming years.”

Boris must be very interested in these buses because on Friday 10th May he returned to Northern Ireland to open a new plant in Antrim where the chassis of the vehicles is produced. Forty people are currently employed there but the BBC reports this is expected to increase to ninety. Boris also visited the main Wrightbus plant in Ballymena.

Update: On Saturday June 22nd, the first of the “Boris buses” entered service on route 24.

CARLETON ON TOUR

07/05/2013 by borderroamer

Jack Johnston at Draperstown

The William Carleton story was told by Jack Johnston at The Shepherd’s Rest pub near Draperstown. The well-attended event was hosted by Ballinascreen Historical Society. It include a reading by the Carleton Players from “The Party Fight and Funeral”, adapted by Liam Foley. William Carleton Society is part of the “Shared History, Shared Future” project financed by the EU Peace III initiative and administered by Magherafelt District Council on behalf of the South West Peace III Partnership. On Tuesday 14th May at 6:30pm at Ranfurly House/Hill of the O’Neill centre in Dungannon we will be launching the programme for the 22nd annual William Carleton international summer school. All welcome.

CHURCH & STATE

06/05/2013 by borderroamer

Taoiseach Enda Kenny in Knock (Picture RTÉ News)

Listening to an interview given by the Taoiseach Enda Kenny to RTÉ News (This Week) at Knock airport in his Mayo constituency, he answered one question with the comment: “I have my own way of speaking to my God”. He had been asked about the Catholic hierarchy’s response to the proposed legislation for limited abortion, the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill. Cardinal Brady who was visiting the Marian shrine at Knock held out the threat of refusing communion to politicians who supported the bill, saying “that (excommunication) is down the line at the moment as far as we are concerned”. During a national prayer vigil for the right to life of mothers and babies the Catholic Primate of all-Ireland pointed out that the exact legislation that would be introduced was not yet known. “We know what the law is about excommunication, about abortion, that’s a fact. But…the most important issue at this moment is to win the hearts and minds of the people of Ireland to decide with the pro-life“, he said.

Cardinal Sean Brady (Picture RTÉ News)

On Friday, after a meeting of the hierarchy, Cardinal Brady said the scandal involving clerical child sex abuse did not exempt the bishops from the duty of proclaiming the good news of the gift of life. He also said that while the job of TDs and senators was to legislate, they did not have the “power over life”. In response to the Cardinal’s intervention in the debate, Mr Kenny said “My book is the Constitution, the Constitution is determined by the people, it’s the people’s book.”

As Fr Tony Flannery points out in The Journal, many people in this country no longer follow the teaching of the Catholic Church and it is the task of our politicians to legislate for all citizens. He says Cardinal Brady comes across as “stiff and authoritarian” and the choice of him as a spokesperson for the bishops’ campaign is a big mistake. Another good point he makes is that by coming out so strongly, in such an aggressive and black-and-white way against the proposals, the Catholic hierarchy have effectively ruled themselves out of any real engagement in the process from now on. “They will condemn, and they will lobby individual legislators, but their public position is now fixed and unbending. This is not the way to go about influencing a democratic process“, he says.

Fr Tony Flannery (RTÉ News)

So there we have it. The battle lines are being drawn up for what will be a major turning point in church and state relations in Ireland, a debate that is no doubt occupying the minds of many Fine Gael backbenchers are the moment. I think this has been a particularly important weekend which will show the waning influence of the Catholic hierarchy in Irish politics. Added to the previous debates about contraception and divorce and the ongoing discussions about the level of Catholic religious involvement in education, I think we are witnessing a very significant step in the increasing secularisation of the Republic.

HEINRICH BӦLL

05/05/2013 by borderroamer

With his permission, I am re-publishing Patrick Comferford’s blog: Remembering Heinrich Böll on Achill Island

Heinrich Böll … commemorated on Achill Island this weekend
I am staying on Achill Island this weekend, taking part in the ninth annual Heinrich Böll Memorial Weekend which opened on Friday, 3rd May and which continues until Monday 6th May. Heinrich Theodor Böll (1917-1985) was one of Germany’s foremost writers in the aftermath of World War II and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972. He was a leader of the German writers who tried to come to grips with the memory of World War II, the Nazis, and the Holocaust and the guilt that came with them. Böll lived with his wife in Cologne and in the Eifel region, but they also spent time on Achill Island off the coast of Co Mayo during the 1950s and 1960s.

I am staying in Gray’s Guest, close to his cottage in Dugort, which is now used as a guesthouse for international and Irish artists. Many of his experiences in Achill are recalled in his book, Irisches Tagebuch (Irish Journal), which describes in loving detail his journey to Achill and his observations of island life. Heinrich Böll was born into a liberal Catholic and pacifist family in Cologne on 21 December 1917. He was conscripted into the German army during World War II and fought on the Russian and French fronts. He was wounded four times before being captured and held in a US prisoner-of-war camp. He began writing after World War II, drawing on his experiences as a soldier. His first novel was published in 1949 and he went on to publish over 20 books. He also translated Irish writers, including GB Shaw and JM Synge, into German.

Like Paul Henry and Graham Greebe, Böll may have read Synge before he first visited Achill. Böll first travelled to Achill Island in the early 1950s, travelling by train from Dublin to Westport with his family. The details of this visit, along with his observations of Irish ways and customs – from tea drinking to priests wearing safety pins to the popularity of ice cream – are recorded with humorous detail in his Irish Journal.

Heinrich Böll’s cottahe near Dugort on Achill Island
Life on Achill in the 1950s gave him plenty of material to indulge his penchant for the absurd and the incongruous, not least the casual relationship with time. His first book was called The Train Was On Time, and that first train from Dublin arrived in Westport right on time. Böll was soon introduced to the Irish saying: “When God made time he made plenty of it.” Achill Island, with its “classless society” and its casual attitude to time, held an immense appeal for him.

Recounting the time he went to a movie in Keel, Böll noted that regardless of the advertised start time the movie could only begin when all the priests – “the local ones as well as the ones on holiday” – were assembled in full strength. In the mid-1950s, Böll wrote in his Irish Journal: “Of the eighty children at Mass on Sundays, only forty-five will still be living here in forty years; but these forty-five will have so many children that eighty children will again be kneeling in church.”

Sixty years later I wonder if 80 people will be kneeling at Mass in the same church in Achill tomorrow morning. Heinrich Böll and his family continued to travel to Achill during the 1950s and 1960s, living in a cottage in Dugort, close to Saint Thomas’s Church. Heinrich Böll died on 16 July 1985. Thanks to his family, the Böll Stiftung in Cologne, and Mayo County Council, his cottage is now an artists’ residence, providing a short-term retreat for writers, poets and artists.

MAY DAY MARCH

04/05/2013 by borderroamer

NUJ Members at May Day March

The annual ICTU May Day rally and parade was held in Belfast on Saturday 4th May. A number of members gathered beside the NUJ banner at Writers’ Square near St Anne’s Cathedral at 12 noon for speeches followed by a march through the city centre accompanied by brass, pipe and samba bands. The march took a slightly different route and finished back at Writers’ Square. It was one of a series of events organised by Congress on the occasion of the centenary of the 1913 Dublin lockout.

May Day Rally, Belfast

The May Day march is among the biggest in the UK and Ireland, and featured speeches from leading union activists. With sponsorship from the European Union Regional Development Fund, Belfast City Council and the Community Relations Council, are presenting an extended festival programme with events for everyone, including walking tours, exhibition launches, lectures and the May Day and Diversity Festival.

NUJ & SIPTU

Amongst the numerous events taking place will be the collaborative exhibition World of Work (WOW) at the Golden Thread Gallery, to celebrate the essence of May Day and showcase the often hidden value of trade union learning initiatives. The gallery will also host the Through the Lens Photographic Exhibition. Over the last six months groups of trade union members and activists have worked to interpret ‘Diversity’ through digital photography. They have come up with images of diversity in all its forms.

There was a good turnout from the main unions including Unison, Unite, NIPSA and the GMB.

NIPSA contingent

MAY DAY PARADE

04/05/2013 by borderroamer

The annual ICTU May Day rally and parade is taking place in Belfast on Saturday 4th May. Gather beside the NUJ banner at Writers’ Square near St Anne’s Cathedral at 12 noon for speeches followed by a march through the city centre accompanied by brass, pipe and samba bands. The march will finish back at Writers’ Square where food and entertainment will be provided. Help celebrate the wins and achievements of the trade union movement over the years and show that we are proud to be trade unionists. It’s one of a series of events organised by Congress on the occasion of the centenary of the 1913 Dublin lockout.

BBC Strike, March 2013

The May Day march is among the biggest in the UK and Ireland, and will feature speeches from leading union activists. With sponsorship from the European Union Regional Development Fund, Belfast City Council and the Community Relations Council, are presenting an extended festival programme with events for everyone, including walking tours, exhibition launches, lectures and the May Day and Diversity Festival. Amongst the numerous events taking place will be the collaborative exhibition World of Work (WOW) at the Golden Thread Gallery, to celebrate the essence of May Day and showcase the often hidden value of trade union learning initiatives. The gallery will also host the Through the Lens Photographic Exhibition. Over the last six months groups of trade union members and activists have worked to interpret ‘Diversity’ through digital photography. They have come up with images of diversity in all its forms. The opening night will include a DJ set from Love Music Hate Racism and a performance piece from Scream Blue Murmur.

PRESS FREEDOM DAY

03/05/2013 by borderroamer

Wreath laid at Veronica Guerin statue

Representatives of journalists in Ireland have been marking world press freedom day. In Dublin the President of the National Union of Journalists Barry McCall demanded action to protect media plurality across Europe. He joined senior NUJ and Amnesty International Ireland figures in laying a wreath at the Veronica Guerin statue in Dublin Castle in memory of all the journalists who have been killed in the course of their work. He said: “It is our duty to ensure that each one of those journalists is remembered. Here in Ireland we know the pain felt by the murders of Martin O’Hagan and Veronica Guerin, both NUJ members committed to the highest principles of journalism. We salute those who have died in the cause of the truth. We also need to protect our ability to communicate the truth on a global basis and across all platforms in the future.”

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) who will hold their triennial Congress at Dublin Castle next month and the NUJ have also written to the embassies of the four countries in the world with the highest numbers of imprisoned journalists to demand their release. Signed by IFJ President Jim Boumelha the letters have been sent to the embassies of China, Iran, Turkey and Eritrea, to express the IFJ’s concern about the lack of press freedom in these countries, where journalists are routinely detained in violation of their fundamental freedoms and human rights. As a sign of unity and solidarity, the IFJ is also calling on its affiliates to send similar letters to the embassies of the same countries in their regions. General Secretary Michelle Stanistreet has written on behalf of the NUJ.

This year the IFJ is marking world press freedom day by focusing on the issue of journalist safety and journalists imprisoned around the world. This reflects the ongoing concern over the numbers of our colleagues who continue to languish in prisons in many countries as a result of their profession. In Iran, according to the Association of Iranian Journalists (AoIJ), at least 24 journalists are currently in prison on charges of allegedly violating Iranian laws. In Turkey, the Turkish Union of Journalists, estimates that at least 66 journalists are currently in prison, awaiting trial on charges of allegedly isolating the Turkish penal code or anti-terror laws. The European Federation of Journalists is running a campaign with the Turkish Union of Journalists to ‘Set Journalists Free in Turkey’. In Eritrea, according to reliable sources, at least 18 journalists have been detained without charges since the authorities imposed a ban on independent media in September 2001. In China, it was reported in 2012 that potentially over 30 journalists were imprisoned, awaiting trial on charges of allegedly violating the Chinese penal code or anti-terror laws.

At a meeting of Dublin branch in Liberty Hall the NUJ President Barry McCall called for public support for the European Citizens Initiative which calls on the European Commission to bring forward measures to protect media pluralism and press freedom. Mr McCall said: “It is standard practice for governments and competition authorities to intervene when a firm becomes dominant in any sector. But the media industry is even more sensitive to such dominance as with it comes potentially immense political power and influence. This is why different standards and thresholds must be applied to this bulwark of democracy and why the NUJ is supporting the European Citizens’ Initiative aimed at gathering a million signatures to a petition calling on the European Commission to bring forward to protect media pluralism and press freedom. We need 9,000 signatures from Ireland to play our part in this critically important initiative. The NUJ will be campaigning to get its own members to sign up to the petition and we are calling on all trade unions, political parties, and the Irish people generally to get behind it so that we can prevent abuses of media power in this country in future.”

Irish Executive Council Cathaoirleach Gerry Curran told the branch that media freedom involved taking a stand in defence of journalism at home and abroad. Highlighting the fact that the NUJ will host the IFJ World Congress in Dublin next month he said the international focus on Ireland would give the NUJ a special role in highlighting the abuse of journalists throughout the world. NUJ Irish secretary Séamus Dooley joined Amnesty International Ireland in calling for the release of journalists like Ali Mahmoud Othman who are detained in Syria. Noeleen Hartigan, Programmes Director of Amnesty International Ireland, said: “Syria is now the world’s most dangerous place to be a journalist. Scores of journalists have been detained, tortured or killed over the last two years. Others, like Ali Mahmoud Othman are detained in secret locations. Together with the NUJ we are today calling for the release of all journalists detained solely for their work to tell the world what is happening in Syria today.”

Adrián Silva Moreno: Photo Proyecto Impunidad

In 2012, 84 journalists in 25 countries died while covering the news. On May 13, their names will be added to the Journalists’ Memorial at the Newseum in Washington DC. In Mexico, Adrián Silva Moreno, a freelance journalist and contributor to the newspaper Puntual, was shot to death while covering a raid of a warehouse near Tehuacan. Silva was leaving when his car was fired on by unknown gunmen.

In a ceremony at the Newseum on Wednesday it was revealed that the percentage of the world’s population that has access to a free press declined during 2012, according to an annual survey released by Freedom House, which has documented media independence since 1980. 197 countries were monitored. Of that total, 32 percent were “free;” 36 percent were “partly free;” and 32 percent were “not free.” In 2012, the press status in eight countries changed. Karin Karlekar, project director at Freedom House, said this marked the first time in history that all country changes were in a negative direction. The worst of the worst countries for press freedom were Belarus, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Three countries — Greece, Mali and Israel — changed from “free” to “partly free” Five countries — Egypt, Paraguay, Ecuador, Guinea-Bissau and Thailand — changed from “partly free” to “not free”. Norway and Sweden remain the most free in the world. Both have constitutions that guarantee press freedom. Newspaper readership is high, and internet access is widely available and unrestricted. For more information on the survey, visit www.freedomhouse.org. I am grateful to fellow blogger Darach MacDonald for bringing it to our attention on facebook.

Also in Dublin, the Irish section of the Association of European Journalists marked world press freedom day with a talk over lunch by the Chairman of the Irish Press Council, Dáithí O’Ceallaigh.

HSS STENA VOYAGER

02/05/2013 by borderroamer

Stena HSS craft in Belfast Lough

Built to compete with air travel on the short hop across the North Channel, the high-speed craft introduced by Stena Line in 1996 could do the the trip from Belfast to Stranraer in 85 minutes. But rising fuel costs meant a slower speed to reduce oil consumption and a journey time of two hours. The wash created by the craft entering Belfast Lough also caused problems for those walking along the shoreline in places like Holywood, Co.Down. ‘Stena Voyager’ and her sisters ‘Stena Explorer’ and ‘Stena Discovery’ took much of their technology from the world of aviation. They were described as being to the ferry industry what the jet plane was to aviation in the era of propeller aircraft. Now, preparations are being made for the departure from Belfast of the HSS ‘Stena Voyager’ on a one-way trip to the recycling yard in Sweden. The final journey was meant to take place this afternoon but the BBC (NI) reports it has been delayed until the weekend. The operation went ahead on Sunday (May 5th) and the vessel is now being towed away for “upphuggning” (that’s what the Swedish version is as you can see here). Sounds much nicer than being scrapped!

The vessels are each powered by the maritime versions of four GE Aviation gas turbines, fuelled by a light diesel oil with low sulphur content. They have four Kamewa waterjets for propulsion. The HSS ferries were designed to allow quick turnarounds at port. Vehicles could be loaded via two of the four stern doors and park in a “U” configuration. When disembarking, vehicles drove straight off through the other two doors. When the HSS started operating in 1996, oil was just $18 a barrel. Fuel costs rose by 600% since the introduction of the ‘Stena Voyager’ and consequently slower running became the norm. In November 2011, the Voyager was withdrawn from service. With the earlier sale of the HSS ‘Stena Discovery’ to Venezuela, this leaves the ‘Stena Explorer’ as the remaining craft in service. Her deployment out of Holyhead is reduced to just one round trip a day, down from a peak of five, on a seasonal basis. The service to Dun Laoghaire will run until Tuesday September 10th and the crossing time is two and a quarter hours.

Belfast Port

When the Stena Voyager was first introduced, the ferry was unique in its class and since its first sailing it carried over 17 million passengers and made over 45,000 sailings between Northern Ireland and Scotland. When commissioned by Stena Line, the HSS series of three ships, including the Stena Voyager, helped to revolutionise the look of the ferry industry. With its top speed of 40 knots, a high quality onboard travel experience for 1,500 passengers and its freight capacity of 375 vehicles, the HSS became an instant hit with customers. I used it on a number of occasions and found it very comfortable. In recent years, it was also fitted with wifi, which was an added bonus.

Stena Line’s Chief Operating Officer Michael McGrath said whilst the HSS class was a unique and highly innovative development, unfortunately the spiralling costs of operating the Stena Voyager had become all too high. “When the Voyager was first put into service fuel was approximately $20 per barrel and now the price is around $110 dollar, for a fuel hungry vessel this is simply untenable“, he said. “We live in different times now and we have to invest in more fuel efficient services for our freight and travel passengers. As a result we have now introduced two Superfast ferries on the service between Northern Ireland and Scotland and have constructed new ports in both Cairnryan and Belfast to give our customers one of the best ferry experiences on the Irish Sea.”

Stena HSS Craft at Queen’s Island, Belfast

The Stena Voyager is being moved to the Öresundsvarvet shipyard in Landskrona, Sweden, where she will be recycled by Stena Line’s sister company, Stena Recycling. All of the Voyager’s various components will be recycled, as far as possible, helping the company to maintain its environmentally responsible reputation. Staffan Persson, MD Stena Recycling, said this would be a unique and interesting project. “There are many different types of material to recycle, and this will be done in several stages. The project requires highly experienced personnel and efficient recycling processes, which we possess. Recycling the large quantities of aluminium in the Stena Voyager will save up to 150 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide and the metal can be reused in the form of car parts or furniture for example“, he said.

The Stena Voyager was designed by another company in the Stena Sphere Group, Stena Teknik and at the time was one of the most revolutionary designed and constructed ships in the world.